I got the JBL Studio 580 and 590 tower speakers yesterday. I hooked up the larger 590 speakers. If I love them, then I can leave the 580 speakers in their boxes and easily send them back (or sell them, since online they're now back to regular price and somebody may be happy to get them from me at the sale price).

I've heard two complaints about the 590 speakers: they don't image quite as well as some of the other JBL speakers (including, possibly the 580s), and they can have too much bass depending on speaker placement. These speakers come with foam inserts that you can use to plug up the rear ports if the bass seems to heavy to you. But I found that they seemed to muffle a lot more of the sound than just the bass, so I left them out.

If I listened to all my music at loud volumes, and if I could place the tower speakers as far out in the room as I want, then the 590 would be the perfect speaker for me. But I do a lot of listening at night, which limits how much I can push the volume. And where I have to place them for aesthetic reasons, they do seem to suffer from exactly these problems, and it bugs me. I like a very lively, dynamic sound from my speakers. So I guess I'll have to unbox the 580 towers to see if I like them better.

Before anyone says, "Why not just leave the speakers where the wife wants them most of the time, then pull them out where you want them when it's just you listening?" These speakers are very "tippy" on carpet unless you use the included carpet spikes. The spikes do their job to make the speakers much more stable, but they also make it impossible to simply slide the speakers around.

The Outlaw 5000 amp comes tonight. Is that likely to change the sound much, especially at lower volumes? If so, then I may wait on unboxing the 580 speakers. The 590 towers are very efficient speakers (92 dB sensitivity) so I don't know if a powerful amp will make as much difference as it might with less sensitive speakers.

Okay, so the answer is unequivocally, YES! Yes, the Outlaw 5000 amp makes a BIG difference. Now I finally benefit from the great processing of my Outlaw 975 pre/pro. My JBL Studio 590 speakers are finally delivering the amazing imaging spoken of in all the reviews I had been reading. Vocals sound much more natural.

Okay, so the answer is unequivocally, YES! Yes, the Outlaw 5000 amp makes a BIG difference. Now I finally benefit from the great processing of my Outlaw 975 pre/pro. My JBL Studio 590 speakers are finally delivering the amazing imaging spoken of in all the reviews I had been reading. Vocals sound much more natural.

I'm officially a very happy camper.

Thanks for all the help!

Good to hear. I'm not surprised. I noticed a pretty big change when I added the XPA-2 rather than using the receiver power for the mains.

Okay, so the answer is unequivocally, YES! Yes, the Outlaw 5000 amp makes a BIG difference. Now I finally benefit from the great processing of my Outlaw 975 pre/pro. My JBL Studio 590 speakers are finally delivering the amazing imaging spoken of in all the reviews I had been reading. Vocals sound much more natural.

I'm officially a very happy camper.

Thanks for all the help!

Woo! Sorry, I didn't see your post yesterday. I think you've got a good setup going, the 590 are fantastic speakers, especially at the price you paid. Would be curious to hear your thoughts on the 580. I've never heard them, and your ability to do A/B comparisons quickly is pretty cool.

I forget, did your sub arrive as well? If so, how do you like it? The specs look great, I bet with a little bit of room gain it will play very low.

I also now understand why people rave about Chesky Records recording quality. Holy cow!!

The engineering matters. Which makes it unfortunate that my tastes lean towards indie rock. Most of the stuff I like was recorded very poorly.

Diana Krall's stuff sounds great. And the Dave Matthews Band stuff is a bit bright, but overall it is very well mastered.

Your 590s should do really well with piano/strings/vocals. And at 92dB efficient, with the tweeter being more like 100dB, they should be nice and dynamic for rock music, and movies. I've become a big fan of compression drivers / horns.

The realism of my new system's sound is scary. I know, because I played in bands and orchestras for 13 years. I know each of the various upgrades to my system contributes to that realism, but I think the compression drivers add a lot all by themselves (either that, or the sample tracks I've listened to that demonstrate the difference of compression drivers are misleading.)

Doing A/B testing with my old DCM TimeFrames is enlightening. The DCMs still sound very good. But the JBLs have been so good that I've actually been startled in the middle of listening, like when a musician dropped something. Freaks me out when listening at night, because it sounds like there's somebody in the room with me!

Piano and strings are truly amazing with these speakers, especially with single instruments or small groups of performers. With your eyes closed, you can convince yourself the musician is right there performing live before you.

I haven't heard better vocals, but I keep wondering if some speaker manufacturer out there could make them sound even more realistic. Perhaps the limitation comes down to the various filters (i.e., "spit shield") they put between a singer and their microphone? Don't know. Just wonder if I could get slightly more realism one day. But I'm very happy for now.

Woo! Sorry, I didn't see your post yesterday. I think you've got a good setup going, the 590 are fantastic speakers, especially at the price you paid. Would be curious to hear your thoughts on the 580. I've never heard them, and your ability to do A/B comparisons quickly is pretty cool.

I keep trying to talk myself out of A/B testing the 580s. They're still in the box, which would make it a lot easier to send them back. But I probably just need to get over that and do the A/B testing, or I may always have the "what if's."

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I forget, did your sub arrive as well? If so, how do you like it? The specs look great, I bet with a little bit of room gain it will play very low.

Yes, it arrived. I've never been the biggest fan of subs, but realize I need one for home theater. They just never sound musical enough for me. In fact, I turn it off when listening to music (while also removing the crossover/bass management so that I get all the sound through my 590s). I've got it in "bass extension" mode. Maybe I should try it in "max output" mode. One review said that it makes a lot of port noise in "bass extension" mode when pushed, so maybe that's what is bugging me.

I keep trying to talk myself out of A/B testing the 580s. They're still in the box, which would make it a lot easier to send them back. But I probably just need to get over that and do the A/B testing, or I may always have the "what if's."

Yes, it arrived. I've never been the biggest fan of subs, but realize I need one for home theater. They just never sound musical enough for me. In fact, I turn it off when listening to music (while also removing the crossover/bass management so that I get all the sound through my 590s). I've got it in "bass extension" mode. Maybe I should try it in "max output" mode. One review said that it makes a lot of port noise in "bass extension" mode when pushed, so maybe that's what is bugging me.

Subs can be hard to integrate. Turn them up too much and it sounds bottom-heavy. They may be slightly (or completely) out of phase. And some subs, at low frequencies, suffer from 'group delay.' That just means the sound is delayed, by a few milliseconds, and they can sound a bit slow or sloppy. Sealed subs don't really have the problem, vented subs do to varying degrees.

One big advantage of subs is you're pulling the bass out of your mains, so they will sound cleaner and can get louder, if needed.